Following an unexpected “demonstration” operation from North Korea — officially the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) — just before Christmas, Polish DXer Dom Grzyb, 3Z9DX, now expects to be back in the DPRK — the most-wanted DXCC entity — for his “official” activation by late this summer. He initially had anticipated returning this month or next. P5/3Z9DX showed up on the air from the most-wanted DXCC entity on December 20 and 21 to demonstrate Amateur Radio for North Korean officials. Over the course of that activation — the first in more than a decade — P5/3Z9DX made nearly 785 SSB contacts, most of them on 15 meters. Nearly 600 of the contacts were with stations in Asia; P5/3Z9DX worked just 26 stations in North America. He has posted his log on ClubLog.

“Finally home!” Grzyb said in a December 29 post to an eHam.net reflector. “Wish you all the best in 2016 and thank you to all who support me with this project.”

Grzyb recently contacted The Daily DX Editor Bernie McClenny, W3UR, to update his situation. During his visit, authorities were friendly and polite, McClenny reported, noting that he was also surprised that they allowed him to operate in December. P5/3Z9DX was severely hampered by extremely high noise levels on all HF bands, not to mention a geomagnetic storm. Noise, he said in a video posted on his website, made it “almost impossible” to copy weaker signals in Pyongyang.

When he goes back to the DPRK this summer, he will be operating from a far quieter location in a rural area, Grzyb told The Daily DX. While operating from North Korea in December, P5/3Z9DX was running 100 W to a vertical antenna mounted on a metal fencepost some 7 feet above the ground among government high-rise buildings. His equipment was left behind in Pyongyang, as agreed to before his December visit. The P5/3Z9DX preview was the first from North Korea since the 2001-2002 operation by Ed Giorgadze, 4L4FN. — Thanks to OPDX, The Daily DX